MANILA, Philippines – The Duterte administration should not shut its eye on warnings by human rights organizations and the international community on the killings happening in the country linked to the government’s war on illegal drugs, a former top Philippine official said.
Eduardo Ermita, Defense chief and executive secretary during the Arroyo administration, said the government should “engage” the international community and present its case before them so they would understand the initiatives of the Philippines to solve the unexplained killings.
“We have to engage them,” Ermita said Monday, referring to the international community such as the United Nations, “we can’t totally disregard them.”
“As a matter of fact, I understand that every year, we are being called to make our presentation,” added Ermita, former chairperson of the presidential committee on human rights
In 2007, Ermita led a delegation to New York to make representations with the UN Human Right Commission on the government’s efforts to address extrajudicial killings and human rights violations.
Ermita responded to a report made by Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions, who visited the Philippines and observed that a number of extra judicial killings were linked to the government’s counter-insurgency program.
Alston had noted that the killings were being done with impunity due to the government’s failure to investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators.
“During the time of President Arroyo, we presented our case, and it boils down to the principle in laws which says that we have to follow due process,” he said.
He said the UN Human Rights Council made observations about the few convictions of those charged with violating human rights.
“We explained that our Constitution has its Bill of Rights, which states that no person shall be deprived of life, property, liberty without due process, and so we explained our legal procedures, and this explains why there are very few convictions,” he said.
“We explained that we can’t convict people just because they were pointed by the media, we have to go through the process,” he added.
Ermita said the government could tap the presidential human rights committee to address the issues being raised against the Duterte administration in relation to the killings.
